•Seema Chishti: You have introduced changes in the Department of Post at a time when postal services seem passe. Please explain what you are trying to achieve.

What we have been doing at the Department of Posts is something embryonic, something revolutionary as opposed to evolutionary. It is something I hope will get institutionalised way after I leave the department.

This is a department which I knew very little about, a department which all of us unfortunately don’t care too much about because it is on the periphery of our existence. But I believe it has a value proposition that can fundamentally impact the lives of the people across the length and breadth of this country.

Close to about 70 per cent of India’s population lives in rural areas -- that’s close to 700 million people, double the population of USA. The largest market from the consumer point of view is going to be rural India. Juxtapose that with the Department of Posts and Telegraph that has the spread of probably no other department of the Government of India. We have 1.55 lakh post offices of which close to 1.40 lakh are in rural areas. When I became minister, I wanted the Department of Posts to become the window to the world for the common man. If you look at the telecom sector, the emergence of broadband is becoming prevalent all across. Similarly, from the infrastructure standpoint I looked at the Department of Posts as a small shopping mall that could actually offer services across the length and breadth of this county.

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